Formula One news

Williams line-up was 'too pricey'

Pricy drivers!

Williams' Ralf Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya F1 line-up proved too pricey to retain, team co-owner Patrick Head revealed. The former technical director, now an engineering advisor, said the new commercial deal with BMW involves the receipt of 'very much less' money.

Head said: "We could not afford those two drivers (anymore)."

Schumacher, 29, moved on to cash-laden Toyota, and Colombia's Montoya will line up next to teammate Kimi Raikkonen. Head hinted, though, that the latter expenditure can not be 'justified' by McLaren. "It's a very, very large monetary figure," Patrick implied.

Fending off criticism of possibly too weak a 2005 line-up, therefore, Head defended: "I don't share that view. It was probably time to move on, anyway."

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